Challenges and Opportunities of Agriculture Digitalization in Spain

Abstract

Motivated by the ongoing debate on food security and the global trend of adopting new emerging technologies in the aftermath of COVID-19, this research focuses on the challenges and opportunities of agriculture digitalization in Spain. This process of digital transformation of the agricultural sector is expected to significantly affect productivity, product quality, production costs, sustainability and environmental protection. For this reason, our study reviews the legal, technical, infrastructural, educational, financial and market challenges that can hinder or impose barriers to the digitalization of agriculture in Spain. In addition, the opportunities that digitalization can bring are identified, with the intention of contributing to provide insights that helps strengthen the Spanish agricultural model and make the necessary decision so that professionals in the sector are prepared to adapt to this intense change.

Two-Way FDI assists agricultural sustainable development: Based on digitalization and greening perspectives

“…Human resources play a critical role in the innovative path of agricultural digital transformation. Changes in human resource elements within the agricultural sector can enhance the level of human capital and facilitate the effective utilization of digital technologies in rural areas for production activities [19]. Moreover, the successful implementation of digital agriculture requires a substantial number of highly skilled individuals such as experts, technicians, and farmer service providers.…”

“…Sadjadi EN et al( 2023) [19] Changes in human resource factors in the agricultural sector can enhance the level of human capital and promote the effective use of digital technologies for productive activities in rural areas.…”

Agriculture in the face of new digitization technologies

“…In addition, these devices communicate with each other and collect and exchange data (Adusumalli, 2018). Technologies used in agriculture are divided into guidance systems (hardware systems and software that allow you to drive vehicles and machines in the field), data acquisition technologies (from sensors mounted on machines and stationary on the ground, from detection systems using satellites and aircraft, from data collecting and storing spatial data, e.g., yield maps, soil fertility, vegetation coverage of the substrate, soil water content and from sensors and systems evaluating the welfare of farm animals), as well as executive technologies (software and hardware, e.g., automatically controlled sprayer nozzles, agricultural robots, systems of fertilizer seeders with automatic change of the dose of fertilizers, depending on the information contained in the map of soil fertility) (Sadjadi & Fernández, 2023;Xie et al, 2022;Xu et al, 2022).…”

“…), as well as economic factors (such as price levels, demand, logistics, and transportation conditions, labor availability, costs of raw materials and supplies, etc.). These specific conditions have a decisive impact on agricultural operations, shaping the challenges and opportunities agro-companies face (Sadjadi & Fernández, 2023).…”

“…The European Union launched the Horizon 2020 project 'Internet of Farm & Food' (IoF2020)' , which aimed to accelerate technological progress and the use of digital techniques in Ukrainian Black Sea Region Agrarian Science, 27(3), 9-17 agriculture (Klerkx et al, 2019). Also, the Digital Europe program (2021-2027) launched by the EU aims to bring digital technologies closer to companies and present agriculture as a sector where technology development is highly desirable (Sadjadi & Fernández, 2023).…”